Dyson Airwrap or Shark Flexstyle on Getaway?

[shellgoodman]

Has anyone been able to use either one of these on Getaway? My daughter has been using her Shark (US) as she had a lot of damage done with regular curling irons and flat irons. Her hair has been growing back and healthy now because of her use of the Flexstyle on low heat mode. 

 

 

[RoundGuy2771]

 

This would be the wife's cup of tea, but she's not here. As for what she's told me, no hairdryers, no curling irons, but certain straightener's are allowed.  I'm going to guess whatever she brings is going to be looked at carefully (a time delay) and will be allowed or disallowed based on who's looking at it.

 

You can always call NCL -- good luck with that.

 

 

[omahabob]

If it has a heating element, it's prohibited.

[The Traveling Man]

6 minutes ago, omahabob said:

If it has a heating element, it's prohibited.

There are exceptions for curling irons.

[RoundGuy2771]

6 minutes ago, The Traveling Man said:

There are exceptions for curling irons.

 

Sure, as long it's a straitener, not a curling iron.

 

 

[omahabob]

As usual, NCL gives out conflicting information.

 

"Items brought on board the vessel and not supplied by the Company containing any kind of heating element, such as but not limited to: immersion heaters, heating blankets, clothing irons, water heaters, coffee machines with heating/hot plates, etc."

 

No exceptions listed.

 

https://www.ncl.com/prohibited-items

[The Traveling Man]

7 minutes ago, omahabob said:

As usual, NCL gives out conflicting information.

 

"Items brought on board the vessel and not supplied by the Company containing any kind of heating element, such as but not limited to: immersion heaters, heating blankets, clothing irons, water heaters, coffee machines with heating/hot plates, etc."

 

No exceptions listed.

 

https://www.ncl.com/prohibited-items

This subject came up a couple of months ago on a CC thread.  Someone managed to find another section of the NCL website that listed the exceptions.  I wasn't able to find it just now, but I do remember someone quoted it on CC.

[Belletora]

https://www.ncl.com/faq/guest-conduct-policy#:~:text=Certain items that generate heat,and may require a converter.

 

Looks like they are allowed with how this reads. 

[chengkp75]

It has always been NCL's policy that hair care appliances, whether dryers, curlers, or straighteners are allowed.  As for the OP's question, I don't know anything about the Shark product, but the Dyson products are hit and miss,  so if the Shark is a similar electronic device (in the case of a straightener, if it is a ceramic unit), it may or may not work.  This is not ship specific, it has to do with the ship's wiring, and whether or not there is a ground fault anywhere on the ship at the time.  Ground faults on ships, while not dangerous to life, can affect the electronic devices like Dyson dryers that are designed for land situations.  I won't go into the more intricate details of why, unless requested, but anecdotally I have heard about the Dyson products, and ceramic straighteners of all kinds, working sometimes and sometimes not.

[chillyw]

@chengkp75 You got me curious and I ended up on a thread about an earth sheet from 10 years ago where you explained how cruise ship electrical systems work. Thanks for the education!

[debenson0723]

I have taken my curling iron on board every ship I have been on. No one has inspected it or said a word to me. I unplug it after every use and even if I didn't, it has an automatic shut off feature after about 30 minutes. 

[jackieodonnell]

You can bring a hair dryer or curling iron or hair straightener. I suggest bringing a surge protector. Usually my own hair dryer pops the circuit and I just give in and use theirs but if you put it in a surge protector it may work. Just weaker than at home. 

[RoundGuy2771]

2 minutes ago, jackieodonnell said:

You can bring a hair dryer or curling iron 

 

 

This is not correct based on our experience, but it's NCL. Whatever works, works. If it doesn't, you'll know.

 

 

 

[chillyw]

55 minutes ago, jackieodonnell said:

You can bring a hair dryer or curling iron or hair straightener. I suggest bringing a surge protector. Usually my own hair dryer pops the circuit and I just give in and use theirs but if you put it in a surge protector it may work. Just weaker than at home. 

 

Surge protectors are banned on cruises because they're a fire risk. I certainly wouldn't bring one.

 

A surge protector only is designed to kill circuits with one hot wire in normal wiring, but on a ship both sides are hot, including the normal neutral wire. This can cause them to malfunction and overload / start fires.

[omahabob]

You can bring a power strip without surge protection though. I got this one. It's compact for travel, and has USB-C ports.

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BN4Z47CK

[RoundGuy2771]

1 hour ago, jackieodonnell said:

 I suggest bringing a surge protector.

 

 

I missed this one. Have you actually cruised before?

 

 

[omahabob]

And although not allowed on NCL cruise ships, surge protectors do not reduce power.

[fredflint]

11 hours ago, jackieodonnell said:

You can bring a hair dryer or curling iron or hair straightener. I suggest bringing a surge protector. Usually my own hair dryer pops the circuit and I just give in and use theirs but if you put it in a surge protector it may work. Just weaker than at home. 

surge protectors are usually on the prohibited list.

[chengkp75]

12 hours ago, jackieodonnell said:

I suggest bringing a surge protector.

Even a brand new surge protector can fail and start a fire, due to something elsewhere on the ship, and entirely out of your control.  They are a fire hazard on ships, and are not needed either.

11 hours ago, chillyw said:

A surge protector only is designed to kill circuits with one hot wire in normal wiring, but on a ship both sides are hot, including the normal neutral wire. This can cause them to malfunction and overload / start fires.

While this was the general uptake from the USCG Safety Notice regarding surge protectors, they conflated two problems into one, and didn't elaborate sufficiently.  A surge protector does not "kill" any circuit, it merely dumps voltage to ground, and then restores the power to the circuit when the voltage is normal again, and this function it can do on a ship as well.  The problem with surge protectors on ships is that the semiconductors used to perform this surge protection are only designed to see high voltage in one direction, i.e. when the hot, or neutral, legs are higher than the ground leg.  However, due to the floating ground on ships, a ground on a 480v circuit could produce a situation where the voltage on the ground leg is higher than the hot or neutral leg, and this causes the semiconductors to fail and go into "thermal runaway", and start a fire.

 

The comment about only breaking one leg of the circuit is applicable to US consumer power strips, not surge protectors, as the little "on/off" switch/circuit breaker only opens the hot lead, and if the appliance has a ground fault, then the current could continue to flow from neutral to ground.

[KP@Sea]

17 hours ago, shellgoodman said:

Has anyone been able to use either one of these on Getaway? My daughter has been using her Shark (US) as she had a lot of damage done with regular curling irons and flat irons. Her hair has been growing back and healthy now because of her use of the Flexstyle on low heat mode. 

 

 

I brought my Flexstyle on the Getaway last month. It made a ‘buzzing’ noise and quit working. It will not work at home at all now.

Edited June 27, 2023 by Winky7650
Typo

[Tasha999]

I took my Dyson hair dryer on the Escape in January and twice I blew out he power in the room!  I’m going to purchase a dryer with an automatic converter for my Joy cruise in August.

Edited June 27, 2023 by Tasha999

[RB9643]

10 hours ago, Winky7650 said:

I brought my Flexstyle on the Getaway last month. It made a ‘buzzing’ noise and quit working. It will not work at home at all now.

 

 

2 hours ago, Tasha999 said:

I took my Dyson hair dryer on the Escape in January and twice I blew out he power in the room! 

 

 

Actual, real-world experiences help everyone. Thanks!

 

 

[jackieodonnell]

I see. Well then I change my suggestion to: Do not bring a surge protector.

 

Stay safe everyone!

[jackieodonnell]

On 6/26/2023 at 11:16 PM, RoundGuy2771 said:

 

I missed this one. Have you actually cruised before?

 

 

What is the purpose of asking me if I have cruised before? It makes it seem like your intention is to insult me rather than having a conversation with me, which is the purpose of message boards such as this, but it is also quite possible you did not mean to insult me at all. Just pointing it out.

 

Yes, I have cruised many times. Sapphire on NCL. I looked at the prohibited list and while it doesn't say these items specifically, including a surge protector, I agree that these items are not suitable and will no longer bring them when I cruise and take back my recommendation above. 

 

https://www.ncl.com/prohibited-items

 

Stay safe everyone!

[omahabob]

8 minutes ago, jackieodonnell said:

What is the purpose of asking me if I have cruised before? It makes it seem like your intention is to insult me rather than having a conversation with me...

 

This forum is by no means alone in that regard. There seems to be two prevalent themes of such posts. The first is, you haven't cruised as much as me, or cruised enough, so you can't possibly know something I don't. The second is, if there's something you don't know, you must have never cruised before, or haven't cruised enough. There are variations on those principles, but that's the general gist. But again, that type of attitude is by no means limited to this forum. It's one of the many joys of internet forums that we have to learn to live with.

 

And I should also mention, many times those posts are not intended to come across the way they do.

Edited June 28, 2023 by omahabob